Civil Rights and its Leaders
...nce stem from their original opinions of how capable the whites are of being "good". Not all of the whites involved in the problem of racism supported it. Some were actually trying to help fight for the blacks. Unfortunately, it took Malcolm X a long time to figure that out. Malcolm's paper, "The Ballot or the Bullet," makes that clear. In his paper, he is constantly criticizing whites as a whole. He does not consider, even for a moment, that a white could actually support equality for all men. "Usually, it's the white man who grins at you the most, and pats you on the back, and is supposed to be your friend. He may be friendly, but he's not your friend" (261). However, in a later work of his, "1965," one can see that Malcolm was learning to accept whites as possible allies. I tried in every speech I made to clarify my new position regarding white people - 'I don't speak against the sincere, well meaning, good white people. I have learned that there are some. I have learned that not all white people are racists' (367). Yet, while Malcolm learned over a period of time that not all whites are evil, King entered the scene already fully aware that "good" whites existed. In fact, where Malcolm underestimated the goodness in whites, King seems to have overestimated it. He talks about his overestimating of goodness in "Letter from Birmingham Jail." "I guess I should have realized that few members of a race that has oppressed another race can understand...the deep groans and passionate yearnings of those that have been oppressed" (244...